The Omni Nashville Hotel, going up adjacent to brand-new Music City Center, has shared almost 40 percent of all its contracts with small businesses.

Written by

Jerry L. Maynard II

On Monday, Nashville residents and local elected and community leaders celebrated the grand opening of the iconic Music City Center, our city's new 1.2-million-square-foot, state-of-the-art downtown convention center.

Tourism and convention planners herald the new facility as a magnet for major conventions and conferences that will attract thousands of new visitors who will pour millions in additional sales tax revenue into our local coffers.

But in my book, the bigger win for Nashville is what this project has meant to small businesses throughout our city. To date, more than 133 ...